Cypriot Minister of Finance Kikis Kazamias has stressed that a financial transactions tax should be imposed not only on a European level, but also on a global level.

In his speech during a meeting of the Council of Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs of the EU (ECOFIN), Kazamias agreed that there is a need to impose a tax on financial transactions, stressing however that such taxation should be applied worldwide, since financial markets are now linked to each other.

He pointed out that imposing this tax could encourage a leakage of financial transactions from EU Member States to third countries, and therefore Europe should take all necessary measures.

According to Kazamias, the framework of a new financial transactions tax should ensure prevention of tax evasion and double taxation and should minimize distortions in competition.